


Inriam's Shadow

by the_last_watch



Category: Warhammer - All Media Types, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-07 11:23:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19208386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_last_watch/pseuds/the_last_watch
Summary: A Deathwatch Space Marine faces the end of his life at the hands of a Death Jester, and discovers that the most horrifying thing a Harlequin can do is talk.





	Inriam's Shadow

Atreus crawled across the ground, blood pouring from where his limb was severed. He was inches away from his bolter, if he could just get it up before the black clad Aeldari reloaded…

He felt pain shoot up his arm as another shuriken embedded itself in his arm, just below the wrist, severing his muscles and his fingers collapsed on ground useless. He rolled onto his back to stare at the Death Jester, who was chuckling to himself. “Now, now, now,” he said, pressing one foot onto the Astare’s chest and sliding him across the blood slicked floor until his back was against the wall. Were his mind less occupied scrambling to figure out a solution to his predicament, Atreus might have noticed the lack of a mechanical translator. “I need you alive, but I can’t have you messing with that.”

Atreus wished his helmet was off, he strongly desired to spit at the Harlequin’s feet. “Just kill me xenos scum, you’ll get no information from me.”

The Death Jester tilted his head back and laughed, a high piercing thing. “You think I need information from you? Your arrogance is truly astounding.” The Aeldari moved across the floor quickly and kicked the bolter down the hallway. “No, your Sergeant is my target, he’s the one who’s betraying you to the Dark Powers.”

“Telcare would never-”

“I don’t care about you denials Atreus, his death is already assured.” The Aeldari turned and placed the blade on his cannon at Atreus’ throat. “I just wished to have a few moments to speak with you.”

“I’ve nothing to say to you scum.”

The Death Jester affected an exaggerated sad tone to his. “But Atreus, we have so much history. Don’t you recognize me?” The Harlequin was masked and cloaked, so the question was absurd on its face. “Coheria? Come now, I asked your Captain if he wished my death more than the death of She Who Thirsts?”

The memory came rushing back, of Artemis’ confrontation with the Death Jester known as Inriam’s Spectre. “You…impossible, Artemis killed you, no, killed him.”

Instantly the Death Jester’s head snapped back, farther back than any human, or Aeldari’s, head could go. Then it fell forward, the mask shattered, revealing an Aeldari face with a massive hole in the forehead, blood drained, eyes dead. For a moment, Atreus believed that his squad had come to rescue him, and he simply hadn’t heard the shot, but then the Death Jester’s mouth split open into an insane grin and he began to laugh. “Did he kill me Atreus? He pointed the gun and pulled the trigger, but do you think he could truly kill me?” A moment later, Atreus blinked and the face was replaced with the Death Jester’s mask, but the laugh haunted him.

Atreus slid down the wall, trying to move away from the Harlequin. “If-if you are him, what do you want? Artemis is the one killed you.”

The Death Jester gave an exaggerated, comical shrug. “I simply wanted to amuse myself for a bit, before your fellows arrive to fail to save you. It’s not often you get a chance to meet the one of the idiots who wanted to kill a couple Aeldari more than he wanted to stop one of the gods of Chaos. But then I suppose all you Astares are roughly that stupid.”

“Stupid? You scum, we are the Emperor’s-” began Atreus angrily, but the Harlequin spun suddenly and a kick slammed hard into the side of his skull, cutting him off.

“You are exactly what all Space Marines are, an idiot child raised in a cult, devoted to worshiping your strength and the weapons that give you it.” The Death Jester bent at the waist and leaned in. Was it Atreus’ imagination or was the smile on the Aeldari’s mask growing? “Tell me true, do you know why they take as children? It’s so you won’t have any attachments to the people you’re supposedly trying to protect. Then you might know enough to want to stay home, or at least enough to care something for the people.”

“We do care-” began Atreus, but the Aeldari cut him off again.

“You didn’t care for the red headed woman.” The words cut deep into Atreus, reopening a wound he didn’t know he had. The Death Jester cocked his head and spoke again, his voice mixing with a woman’s pleading voice, both speaking the same words. “All she wanted was some food Atreus, she and her hive had been starving for fifteen weeks. It took everything she had, every ounce of courage in her, to claw at your arm and beg you to bring her people food. A word to the governor, an order, even a request, and she might not have died, but you didn’t care. The Genestealer Cult was gone and that was all you cared about.”

Atreus’ eyes were welling up by now, but he tried to remain defiant. “The governor said-”

“The governor said” repeated back Inriam’s Spectre in a mocking tone. “The governor was a corrupt madman who cared more about the Defense Force parading down the street than making sure his people stayed fed. Which you knew, your briefing packet told you that the Cult was growing because the people were starving and they offered food, but you didn’t care. Now quit your blubbering, I have work to do.”

Atreus looked up in shock in time to see the Death Jester turning down the hallway at two approaching Astares, clad in the traditional black of the Deathwatch, both of them hefting bolters and Storm Shields. He recognized Telcare’s blue shoulder pad in front and barked a warning as the Death Jester leveled his shrieker cannon. Both Astares stopped and raised their shields.

Inriam’s Spectre turned to Atreus, his neck turning impossibly far, the grin on the mask so wide in seemed to stretch beyond the Aeldari’s head and Atreus knew, instinctively, that he had somehow aided the Death Jester. He was about to shout another warning, when the Aeldari gun fired.

Atreus got a glimpse of the shot slamming into the other Marine’s shield and ricocheting off. He was about to shout in triumph when he saw Telcare jerk in pain and realized what had happened: Somehow, against all logic, the Aeldari had bounced the shot off the other Marine’s shield and into Telcare’s back, bypassing the Sargeant’s Storm Shield.

The other Marine didn’t realize what had happened, and was part way through asking Telcare what was wrong when Telcare’s body erupted, his armor shattered, pieces of his body exploding everywhere. The other Marine wavered for a moment and suddenly Atreus saw that a shard of bone had shot through his eye socket, and the Marine collapsed dead on the ground.

Inriam’s Spectre turned and bowed mockingly to Atreus. “An entire fleet of Chaos Worshipers lose their man on the inside of your troops. Not a bad price to pay for the deaths of three Aeldari killers.”

Atreus sat up as best he could and glared at the Death Jester through his helmet. “Is-is that why you hate us so much? Because we kill Aeldari scum like you?”

The Death Jester sighed and shouldered his weapon. “I don’t hate you Atreus, I pity you. I meant what I said earlier: You are a child. All Astares are children, handed superhuman power and thrust into a war so much bigger than your understanding, to defend an empire so vast and evil that I often have trouble not weeping from the sheer horror of it. In a sane universe, I would be tearing your empire apart piece by piece. But the enemy you fight is so much worse that here I stand, playing clean up for your own mistakes.”

“Our own mistakes?” hissed Atreus. “How could Telcare-”

“Do you know why Sargeant Telcare, 50 year veteran of the Deathwatch, turned to Chaos and began working for the Black Legion in secret?” Without waiting for an answer, the Harlequin continued. “He hated non-humans so much that he believed that the Imperium would be better off falling to Chaos than working alongside any of us. He would rather fight alongside a human who worships Chaos than an Aeldari who was trying to stop Chaos.”

“Y-y-you’re lying!” snarled Atreus.

The mouth on the Death Jester’s mask stretched wide and a voice came from it. It was Atreus’ own voice. “We are supposed to join up with the Ultramarines 3rd company to link up with Lord Guillman so that we-” and then another voice cut in, Sergeant Telcare’s and he remembered exactly what Telcare was going to say: “Belay that order, we’ll move on our own. Guillman was within arm’s reach of that Aeldari woman and didn’t tear her limb from limb. He can wait on our arrival.”

Atreus’ head fell as he remembered that exchange, and a dozen like it. The Harlequin was right. “So you just know everything then? You know all of our thoughts and deeds.”

The mouth on the Harlequin’s mask closed and took a long moment to return to being a smile. “I know what I need to for my role Atreus, nothing more, nothing less.” He hefted the Shrieker Cannon, aiming the blade at the end of the gun at Atreus’ neck.

Atreus had neither the strength nor the will to stop him, but he did have one last question. “Wait,” he said. “I was with Artemis on Coheria. I saw Inriam’s Spectre die. I saw the bolt kill him and his body go limp. How can you be him?”

Was it Atreus’ imagination or did the smile on the Death Jester’s mask twitch. “Your comprehension of life, death and identity among my people is so limited Atreus, I doubt you could even understand the answer.”

When the rest of Atreus’ squad got to the hallway, all they found Atreus’ headless corpse. Though they extracted his geneseed and searched. The Marine who had accompanied Telcare to the hallway lay dead on the floor, his body riddled with bone and armor shards. But ther was no sign of Telcare’s body, nor Atreus’ head.


End file.
